‘Hindu Pakistan’ Row: Congress lashes out at Shashi Tharoor.

Congress Leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor ’s remark that India will become ‘Hindu Pakistan’ has drawn castigation both from the Bharatiya Janata Party and his own party men.

A day after Tharoor’s remark, Congress communication in-charge, Randeep Singh Surjewala said the grand old party represents India’s civilizational values of pluralism and diversity and urged the Congress leaders to keep this in mind while rejecting BJP’s hatred.

Addressing an event at Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor remarked that BJP will write a “new constitution” for the country where the minorities will lose their rights and a situation akin to Pakistan will be created.

"If they (BJP) win a repeat in the Lok Sabha, our democratic Constitution as we understand will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the Constitution of India and write a new one," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

In a video, Tharoor can be heard saying that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words are contradictory at different occasions. According to the MP, one cannot have the highest respect for the Nation’s constitution and hail Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay at the same time.

"That new one will be the one which will enshrine principles of ‘Hindu Rashtra’, that will remove equality for minorities, that'll create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn't what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," Tharoor added.

Defending his statement, the MP said that Pakistan was created as a state with a dominant religion where rights of the minorities have no respect. The idea of “Hindu Rashtra” of BJP and RSS, according to Tharoor, is a mirror image of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janta Party has criticized Tharoor’s statement and demanded an apology from the Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Speaking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, that Rahul Gandhi must apologize for what Shashi Tharoor said. He added that the Congress was responsible for the creation of Pakistan because of its ambitions.